


A Good Day

by kethni



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: Gen, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22405954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: Kent spends some quality time with his daughter.
Relationships: Kent Davison/Sue Wilson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	A Good Day

Wakefulness was a spectrum, not a binary. Kent slid slightly over to the “awake” side of the spectrum. His internal clock gently suggested morning rather than night. He didn’t open his eyes. Not yet. Unwilling to wake himself entirely. The room was dark beyond his eyelids. He knew the blackout curtains kept out every scrap of the slowly creeping daylight. He felt Sue turn over in her sleep. Her foot brushed his calf. The bed was warm. Their body heat only escaping in puffs as the covers shifted.

He knew if he pulled the covers over his head, he would smell their mingled scents. If he ran his hand along the covers then he would feel the lingering warmth of their skin.

Kent shifted onto his side. Fur brushed against his face. The chirp that answered his movement was barely audible. Kienni wasn’t allowed on the bed, least of all on his pillow. She dealt with it in time honoured fashion: waiting until Sue was asleep. Kent opened his eyes and squinted at his watch. It wasn’t particularly expensive, for a watch, but it was a smart watch which apparently made it “a toy” instead of “a style accessory,” and Sue teased him about it. He considered waking her up to point out that his “toy” meant that he didn’t need to turn on the light. She was unlikely though to enjoy the irony.

Early. A little too early to get up. Kent rolled onto his back. A good time to meditate then. He closed his eyes. It didn’t change the view. He simply preferred it. Sight clamoured for attention even when there was nothing to see. Closing his eyes released pressure that he was only aware of when it released.

***

Kent padded downstairs. His bare feet sank into the thick pile of the carpet. The fabric was soft and warm against his skin. The stairwell was lit by the lamp overhead. It was a dull, soft light that nonetheless threatened to crawl under the bedroom doors and disturb Sue. She needed more sleep than Kent did, and reacted poorly if she didn’t get enough.

As he walked into the kitchen, the cats slipped through with him. Kienni, long, dark, and sleek, jumped up onto the old, scarred dresser. Verdi, pale, chunky and squat, plonked himself in front of the dish on the floor. Then he meowed very loudly. Kent scowled at him. It was the same every day. Kent honestly wondered if the cat genuinely thought they were in danger of starving otherwise.

Kent was putting the filled dishes out when the kitchen door was pushed open. Kent glanced over and saw the mop of curb just over the countertop.

‘It’s too early, Simone, go back to bed.’

She stamped her little feet across the kitchen floor. This child. This strange conclusion to an unbelievable reunion. He looked at her each day and each day he was surprised anew. Surprised that she could be there. Surprised that she could live in a world as desperate and corrupt as this one.

She glowered at Verdi as he threw her a wary look. Two enemies of old forever prevented from outright battle.

‘I’m tired.’ She clambered up onto a kitchen chair, crossed her arms on the table, and rested her face on her arms.

‘Go back to bed. There’s absolutely no reason for you to be up, apart from your own stubbornness.

She watched him making himself a coffee and pour a cup of juice for her. She had Sue’s eyes: dark and fringed with long, lush lashes.

She squirmed down from the chair and stomped over to the dresser. ‘How many?’

‘Ten each.’

She yanked the cork lid from the pottery jar and thrust her tiny hand inside. He would have to wash her hands after. The powder from the dry food would stick to her skin and if he wasn’t quick, she might absently put her hand to her mouth. She had learned the hard way that what appealed to the cats most certainly didn’t appeal to her.

Kienni heard Simone approach and sat back, allowing the girl to carefully count out ten pieces of dry food. She dropped them into the bowl one at a time.

‘Help me?’

Kent walked over as she turned to the open doorway. Verdi was squatted in the middle of the corridor. Kent grabbed ten pieces of dry food from the jar and knelt beside Simone.

‘Remember what we practiced. A nice smooth overarm movement.’ He gave her one of the pieces.

She hurled it immediately. It bounced off a wall, skittered across the floor, and skidded underneath a bookcase in the living room.

‘Oh no!’

‘Watch.’

Verdi bolted after the dry food, twisting to follow it, and almost falling. He threw himself onto the floor before the bookcase, shoving his paw underneath to grab at the food.

‘You see, he’s going to enjoy it more because he had to work for it,’ Kent said. ‘When things are too easy then they aren’t satisfying. When things are too difficult then we give up. It’s important to find the right balance. I know that you don’t understand but one day you will.’

Simone looked up at him. ‘Another one?’

Kent held one out. ‘If you throw to the left you can throw it into the study and give him a good run.’

She smiled impishly. Her soft features fell easily into mischief. That seemed proper and right to him. Children should be allowed to be mischievous. Adulthood demanded enough unhappiness and misery. Children should be allowed to be playful.

‘Is that mean?’

‘No, he wants to chase and run a little bit.’

Simone regarded the piece of food in her hand, and then _flung_ it overhead. 

***

Kent poured dark chocolate sauce over the waffles. The rich cocoa scent curled into the air, mingling with aroma of strawberries and banana. He put down the little jug, catching the little drips of chocolate sauce with his fingertip as they hesitated on the lip of jug. He sucked the tiny drips of chocolate sauce from his fingertips and put the jug aside.

‘You can still go back to bed.’

Simone was staring at the plate of waffles with gleaming eyes. ‘I want waffles every day.’

‘You can’t have waffles every day. It would be very bad for you and besides which you wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much.’

Simone sat up straighter as Kent put the plates of waffles on the table. She gripped her _Little Mermaid_ knife and fork in her hands and bit her lower lip as Kent sat down.

‘What about mommy?’

‘She’s asleep still. I’ll make hers later.’

The knife and fork were probably a little bit less useful than almost anything else. Certainly, it would have been much quicker for her to simply use her fingers, but the process of raising a child was, in part, the process of teaching privileging the civilised over the simple. Then, decades later, people would spend copious time and money learning again childlike simplicity.

Sue would have crepes, not waffles, with lemon sauce not chocolate. She did not have a sweet tooth, which made it easier for them to avoid too much sugar in the house. Dark chocolate with waffles was a compromise that had been hard earned. Given entirely her own way, Sue treated childhood much as a gauntlet to be run. It was to be endured, not enjoyed. She and Kent regarded each other’s view of childhood with ironically similar bafflement.

Simone had chocolate smeared around her mouth. A shocking waste of good chocolate. Kent took a wipe from the box on the counter. He clucked his tongue when she ducked back.

‘I’ll lick it off!’

‘You will not,’ he said. ‘You’re making your face sore.’

She scowled at him but submitted to the ministrations of the wipe. The localised dermatitis had been another debate. Licking around her lips was an unfortunate habit that was exacerbated by focussing much attention on it.

‘Mommy woke me up. She snuck into my room.’ Simone scooped up a forkful of waffles and strawberries. ‘She rubbed stuff on my mouth.’

‘It didn’t work.’ Kent finished his food, put his cutlery carefully on the plate, and pushed it away. ‘You didn’t turn into a unicorn.’

Simone giggled. He loved that sound. He loved the way her lips quirked up when she laughed. He loved the bright, cheeky look in her eyes.

‘Finished.’

‘Let me see your hands.’

His shook his head as she held out her hands. They were the same shape as his own and she had the same blunt, square nails. Sue had shaken her head over those. Kent had never heard of nails being masculine or feminine before. It seemed a strange thing to claim.

‘How are you so sticky?’ He led her to kitchen sink and pulled across the little set of steps for her to clamber up.

She shrugged as they washed her hands. ‘Can we go for a walk?’

Kent smiled slightly. ‘It’s still dark out.’

‘I like the dark. I have a flashlight.’

‘It’ll be cold.’

‘Can I wear my new hat?’

Kent nodded. As Simone ran off to collect her hat, he found her warm boots, scarf, coat, and gloves. He placed them all carefully on the couch and went to fetch his own winter clothes. When he returned to the couch, he found that Kienni was curled up on Simone’s coat, and Verdi was sat on her scarf.

‘You two are nothing if not predictable.’

He pulled on his winter things as Simone finally appeared, with her new hat trailing from her fingers. It was designed to look like a polar bear, complete with large eyes and pointed ears. Sue said that it looked as if Simone was being eaten from the head down.

‘Bad cats!’

‘No. That’s my fault. Cats are creatures of instinct. I should’ve realised they would do that.’ Kent reached for the scarf and Verdi fled away upstairs.

‘He’s going to sit on mommy’s dressing table and meow until she wakes up.’

‘Probably.’ Kent tried to move Kienni from the coat, but the dark cat merely watched him with round and incurious eyes.

‘Verdi loves mommy so much.’ Simone shook her head.

‘He doesn’t care for me much.’ Kent ruffled her hair. ‘Kienni loves you.’

Kienni chirped at the sound of her name. Simone stroked her with a slightly too heavy hand.

‘Kienni is my favourite cat in the whole wide world.’

Kent kissed Simone on the forehead. ‘You’re my favourite little girl in the whole wide world.’

***

It was cold but not bitter. Their boots crushed the leaf skeletons and the first gossamer thin shards of ice that had crept tentatively onto the soil. Simone held Kent’s hand with the unconscious confidence of childhood. It was automatic for her. It was never automatic for him. Each time she took his hand it made him straighten his back and shoulders. He knew that Sue did the same thing.

They pushed through the copse of old, heavy oak trees beyond the stables. There was something very grounding about the oak trees. They were older than the ranch. Older than any home in which Kent had ever lived. He imagined their roots underground slowly stretching out beneath the earth.

‘Ride on your shoulders, Daddy?’

‘You’re getting to big for this.’

He scooped her up easily and swung her up onto his shoulders. He felt her balance wobble as she put her arms out wide.

‘I’m a spaceship!’

Kent’s ranch extended another couple of miles to the East. There were a few scattered copses here and there, but in daylight he could see clear across to the nearest farm and far beyond. Right now, daylight was imminent. Glorious orange and outrageous pink were beginning to creep above the horizon.

There were a couple of stumps of trees cut down to knee height. Kent lay blankets over them. Simone threw up her arms and waited patiently for him to lift her onto the smaller stump.

‘Where does it come from?’

‘The sun? It’s not actually moving. The Earth is moving.’

Simone leaned against him. Kent put his arm around her shoulders.

‘We go somewhere?’

‘In a way. As the Earth turns night turns into day and day turns into night. I’ll show you at home if you like.’

‘With my solar system?’

‘That’s right.’

Simone sighed. ‘It’s so pretty.’

He looked over at the sunrise. ‘It is. This is such a good day.’

The End.


End file.
